Welcome to the O’BRAIN Lab

Welcome to the O’BRAIN Lab

The O’BRAIN Lab is a group of researchers inves­ti­gat­ing the inter­play between obe­si­ty and the brain.
Over­weight and obe­si­ty rates have risen steadi­ly in recent decades. Although many of us share sim­i­lar envi­ron­ments, only a few peo­ple become obese. How come? In our search for the cause, we are con­front­ed with a com­plex inter­play of many fac­tors: In addi­tion to the envi­ron­ment, behav­iour, brain func­tion, and genet­ic influ­ences deter­mine the deci­sions we make and thus ulti­mate­ly also our body weight.

Research

We try to answer fun­da­men­tal ques­tions about obe­si­ty: How does obe­si­ty devel­op? Why is it so hard to resist tempt­ing food? Does our brain deter­mine what and how much we eat? How does our nutri­tion shape our brain? Do changes with­in the brain make it so dif­fi­cult for us to break bad eat­ing habits? Last but not least: How can we help to improve eat­ing habits?

We are proud to announce that Annette Horstmann has pub­lished an arti­cle (in Ger­man) in the mag­a­zine Spek­trum der Wis­senschaft, explain­ing how the brains of peo­ple with obe­si­ty are dif­fer­ent to the brains of peo­ple with nor­mal weight — and how that may explain why some peo­ple find it hard…